February 28, 2025

MIDDLE EAST | Updates from regional conflicts:

• Egypt's state information service said yesterday that negotiations have begun in Cairo between Israel and Hamas on implementing the next phase of the Gaza cease-fire. Under the original cease-fire framework, Phase 2 would involve a fully-negotiated end to the war, the return of all living hostages still held by Hamas, and the withdrawal of all Israeli troops from Gaza. [more]
• Israeli officials say at least eight people were injured yesterday when a driver rammed his car into people at a highway bus stop in northern Israel. Authorities described the suspect as a 53-year-old Palestinian man and characterized the incident as a militant attack. [more]

UKRAINE | Today is day 1100 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here is your update:

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is in Washington, DC, today for talks with U.S. President Donald Trump on a potential landmark economic agreement that would see the two countries establish a co-owned and jointly managed investment fund aimed at financing the reconstruction of Ukraine and its war-damaged economy using Ukraine's rare earths mineral deposits. U.S. President Donald Trump has framed the agreement as a means of compensating the U.S. for its wartime aid provided to Ukraine amidst the ongoing Russian invasion, though Zelenskyy has said any economic deal is not a form of repayment. [more]

U.S. TARIFFS | President Donald Trump said yesterday that he plans to impose 25% tariffs on most goods imported from Canada and Mexico starting on Tuesday of next week. Trump also said he would double tariffs on Chinese goods to 20%. [more]

U.S. FEDERAL WORKFORCE | San Francisco-based U.S. District Judge William Alsup ruled yesterday that recent mass firings of probationary employees across numerous federal agencies were likely unlawful and ordered the Office of Personnel Management to inform certain federal agencies that it had no authority to order the firings of probationary employees. The ruling was in response to a lawsuit brought by a coalition of labor unions and organizations. [more]

U.S. WEATHER FORECASTING | Hundreds of weather forecasters and other employees at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration employees were fired yesterday as part of federal workforce reduction efforts by the Department of Government Efficiency. Reports cite climate and natural disaster experts as saying the NOAA provides crucial local forecasts and that the firing could be detrimental to public safety amidst weather and climate-related disasters. [more]

U.S. OIL AND GAS REGULATION | The Republican-controlled House and Senate each voted along party lines this week to repeal a federal rule finalized during the Biden administration that would have imposed a fee on oil and gas producers who release high levels of methane. President Donald Trump is expected to sign the measure. [more]

U.S. MILITARY | The Associated Press cites a letter from five former U.S. secretaries of defense as calling on Congress to hold immediate hearings on the recent firings of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and several other senior military leaders. The letter comes after the Trump administration firings of Air Force General CQ Brown Jr. as chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Admiral Lisa Franchetti as chief of naval operations, General Jim Slife as vice chief of the Air Force, and the judge advocates general from the various military services. [full letter] [more]

U.S. AND MEXICO | Amidst heightened political tensions and U.S. threats of tariffs, Mexican authorities transferred 29 imprisoned drug cartel figures to the U.S. yesterday to face drug trafficking and other criminal charges. [more]

GLOBAL BIODIVERSITY | A two-day extended session of the U.N. COP16 biodiversity conference, which started in Cali, Colombia, last year, ended in Rome, Italy, today with an agreement on how participating countries would contribute $200 billion annually by 2030 to increase global biodiversity and ecosystem protection efforts. [more]

TURKEY | Imprisoned Kurdish separatist leader Abdullah Ocalan called yesterday for the banned Kurdistan Worker's Party, or PKK, to disarm and dissolve, ending its decades-long conflict with the Turkish government in which as many as 40,000 people are believed to have died. [more]

E.U. AND INDIA | Meeting today in New Delhi, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said they have directed their teams to conclude a bilateral free trade agreement this year and to boost cooperation in trade, technology, and defense. [more]

PAKISTAN | Authorities in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province say at least five people were killed, and dozens of others were wounded, today when a powerful bomb exploded at a mosque within a pro-Taliban seminary in the Akora Khattak district. [more]

GREECE | Reports say hundreds of thousands of people are taking part in mass protests and strikes in Athens and elsewhere around Greece today to mark the second anniversary of a 2023 train crash in which 57 people were killed. Protesters say they are demanding justice for the crash, noting that safety issues linked to the crash have not been resolved, a separate judicial investigation remains unfinished, and no crash-related convictions have occurred. [more]

GERMANY | The Financial Times cites German lawmaker Konstantin von Notz, who heads parliament’s intelligence committee, as saying Germany’s recent federal election, which saw record support for the far-right, was subject to “clear” and “successful” manipulation by Russia and other foreign actors, online disinformation, and AI-generated content. [more]

NORTH KOREA | North Korean leader Kim Jong Un says test firings of cruise missiles carried out by his country earlier this week were demonstrations of counter-attack capabilities amidst increased provocations and threats from the U.S. and its allies. [more]

CANADA | Ontario Premier Doug Ford won reelection to lead Canada’s most populous province yesterday amidst increased tensions with the U.S. over potential tariffs threatened by President Donald Trump. [more]

AI ABUSE | European Union police agency Europol announced today that 25 people were arrested this week in an operation targeting members of a criminal group that distributed images generated by artificial intelligence of children being sexually abused. The agency said that authorities from 19 countries were involved in the arrest operation and noted a lack of national legislation surrounding the use of AI tools for this and similar purposes. [more]

GOLF | American Jake Knapp shot a bogey-free 59 in the opening round of the Cognizant Classic at PGA National yesterday – only the 15th time a player has broken 60 in a PGA Tour event. [more]

SOCCER | Japan beat the U.S., 2-1, this week to claim the 2025 SheBelieves Cup soccer tournament championship. The loss was the first of U.S. Women’s National Team Coach Emma Hayes’ tenure and marked the end of a five-year U.S. SheBelieves Cup win streak. [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1953, scientist Francis H.C. Crick announced that he and James D. Watson had discovered the double-helix structure of DNA. [more history]